Oleanna (play)
Encyclopedia
Oleanna is a two-character play
by David Mamet
, about the power struggle between a university
professor
and one of his female students, who accuses him of sexual exploitation
and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded tenure
. The play's title, taken from a folk song
, refers to a 19th-century escapist
vision of utopia
.
This was later adopted to a movie with same name
by Mamet.
While talking with Carol, he is often interrupted by the phone ringing. John is about to be granted tenure, along with a handsome raise. Anticipating this, he is to about to close on a new house, but his wife repeatedly calls with last-minute issues, demanding that he meet her at the home as soon as possible.
After initially appearing insensitive, John eventually decides to help Carol, telling here that he "likes her" and that he also felt similar frustrations as a student. He takes the blame for her not understanding what he is talking about and agrees to give her an "A" if she'll return to his office several more times to discuss the material. At one heated point in the discussion he goes to put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but she violently shakes it off.
Finally, Carol has warmed to John and is on the verge of divulging a secret when the phone rings again and John's wife tells him that the realtor problems were all a scheme to get him back to the house for a surprise reception in his honor. He departs for home immediately.
John hopes to resolve the matter privately with Carol so that the complaint may be withdrawn from the tenure committee. He tries to understand how his actions could have offended her so and attempts to convince her that he was only trying to help her without any ulterior motive.
Carol will not hear any of his pleas and gets ready to leave. As she does, John stands in front of the door and grabs hold of her. Carol screams for help.
Carol is even more forceful to name her instructor's flaws. She finds it hypocritical that a college professor could question the very system that offers him employment and gives him an academic platform to expound his views. She also makes references to "her group", which she is speaking for and which seems to be working to oust teachers like John.
In passing, John mentions that he has not been home recently. Carol reveals that if he had, he would have learned that her charges against him now amount to attempted rape. She then says she would be willing to drop her charges if John would agree to her group's list of banned books, which includes his own.
With this, John decides to take a stand. He is willing to sacrifice his career to stand up to her assault on academic freedom. He angrily tells her to leave his office as his phone rings again. It is his wife, whom he calls "baby." Carol tells him not to refer his wife that way, causing John to snap. He savagely beats her and holds a chair above his head as she cowers on the floor. The play ends with Carol cryptically saying, "That's right."
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
as the first production of Mamet's new Back Bay Theater Company. The premiere featured William H. Macy
as John, a "smug, pompous, insufferable man whose power over academic lives he unconsciously abuses." Rebecca Pidgeon
played the female lead, Carol, described by one critic as, "Mamet's most fully realized female character, ...a mousy, confused cipher" whose failure to comprehend concepts and precepts presented in John's class motivated her appeal for personal instruction. The part of Carol is said to have been written for Pidgeon.
In October, a year after the Anita Hill
- Clarence Thomas
hearings which "crystallized and concretized" Mamet's dramatization, it appeared off-Broadway
at New York City's Orpheum Theatre
, with Macy and Pidgeon reprising their roles. The production included a rewritten third scene. Critic Frank Rich
provides a summary of the play in his review of the off-Broadway production:
It had its London premiere at the Royal Court Theatre
in 1993, directed by Harold Pinter
David Suchet
played John (in a Variety Club Award-winning performance), and Lia Williams
played Carol, in a version that used Mamet's original ending from the Cambridge production. As Pinter notes in personal correspondence to Mamet that Pinter also published on his website:
Michael Billington
, in a review published in The Guardian
, endorsed Pinter's choice of ending, saying "by restoring Mamet's original ending, in which the professor is forced to confess his failings, Pinter also brings out the pain and tragedy of the situation."
directed by Mamet, starring Macy and Debra Eisenstadt
. Roger Ebert
, whose review of the film is primarily about the off-Broadway production he saw over a year earlier, was "astonished" to report that Oleanna was not a very good film, characterizing it as awkward and lacking in "fire and passion"; this is in contrast to what Ebert wrote about the performance of the play he saw at the Orpheum:
More recently, a 2004 production at the Garrick Theatre
in London, featured Aaron Eckhart
and Julia Stiles
and was directed by Lindsay Posner
. Julia Stiles
reprised the role of Carol in a 2009 production, directed by Doug Hughes
and co-starring Bill Pullman
at the Mark Taper Forum
. On June 30, 2009, it was announced that this production would be transferring to Broadway's John Golden Theatre
, with previews beginning Sept. 29 before an Oct. 11 opening night. The show was originally supposed to close on January 3, 2010, but due to poor ticket sales the closing date was moved up to December 6, 2009. The show played 65 performances and 12 previews.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
by David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
, about the power struggle between a university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
and one of his female students, who accuses him of sexual exploitation
Sexual exploitation
Sexual exploitation may refer to:*Sexual slavery*Sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian response...
and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
. The play's title, taken from a folk song
Oleanna (song)
Oleanna is a Norwegian folk song that was translated into English and popularized by former Weavers member Pete Seeger. The song is a critique of Ole Bull's vision of a perfect society in America. Oleanna was actually the name of one of Ole Bull's settlements in the New Norway colony of Pennsylvania...
, refers to a 19th-century escapist
Escapism
Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life...
vision of utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
.
This was later adopted to a movie with same name
Oleanna (film)
Oleanna is a 1994 drama film written and directed by David Mamet based on his play Oleanna and starring William H. Macy and Debra Eisenstadt...
by Mamet.
Act I
Carol, a female college student, is in the office of her professor, John. She expresses frustration that she does not understand the material in his class, despite having read the assigned books and attending his lectures. Of particular concern is a book written by John himself, wherein he questions the modern insistence that everyone participate in higher education, referring to it as "systematic hazing."While talking with Carol, he is often interrupted by the phone ringing. John is about to be granted tenure, along with a handsome raise. Anticipating this, he is to about to close on a new house, but his wife repeatedly calls with last-minute issues, demanding that he meet her at the home as soon as possible.
After initially appearing insensitive, John eventually decides to help Carol, telling here that he "likes her" and that he also felt similar frustrations as a student. He takes the blame for her not understanding what he is talking about and agrees to give her an "A" if she'll return to his office several more times to discuss the material. At one heated point in the discussion he goes to put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but she violently shakes it off.
Finally, Carol has warmed to John and is on the verge of divulging a secret when the phone rings again and John's wife tells him that the realtor problems were all a scheme to get him back to the house for a surprise reception in his honor. He departs for home immediately.
Act II
Carol is back in John's office, but more poised than before. John's tenure is threatened because Carol has filed a formal complaint with the committee, accusing him of being sexist and pornographic. His hand on her shoulder is described as sexual harassment.John hopes to resolve the matter privately with Carol so that the complaint may be withdrawn from the tenure committee. He tries to understand how his actions could have offended her so and attempts to convince her that he was only trying to help her without any ulterior motive.
Carol will not hear any of his pleas and gets ready to leave. As she does, John stands in front of the door and grabs hold of her. Carol screams for help.
Act III
John has been dismissed and is packing up his office. He has not been home, staying at a hotel for two days trying to work out in his head what has happened. He has asked Carol to speak to him once more and she has obliged.Carol is even more forceful to name her instructor's flaws. She finds it hypocritical that a college professor could question the very system that offers him employment and gives him an academic platform to expound his views. She also makes references to "her group", which she is speaking for and which seems to be working to oust teachers like John.
In passing, John mentions that he has not been home recently. Carol reveals that if he had, he would have learned that her charges against him now amount to attempted rape. She then says she would be willing to drop her charges if John would agree to her group's list of banned books, which includes his own.
With this, John decides to take a stand. He is willing to sacrifice his career to stand up to her assault on academic freedom. He angrily tells her to leave his office as his phone rings again. It is his wife, whom he calls "baby." Carol tells him not to refer his wife that way, causing John to snap. He savagely beats her and holds a chair above his head as she cowers on the floor. The play ends with Carol cryptically saying, "That's right."
Release
The play premiered in May 19921992 in literature
The year 1992 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Ben Aaronovitch - Transit*Julia Álvarez - How the García Girls Lost Their Accents*Paul Auster - Leviathan*Iain Banks - The Crow Road...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
as the first production of Mamet's new Back Bay Theater Company. The premiere featured William H. Macy
William H. Macy
William Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...
as John, a "smug, pompous, insufferable man whose power over academic lives he unconsciously abuses." Rebecca Pidgeon
Rebecca Pidgeon
Rebecca Pidgeon is a British actress and singer-songwriter. She has maintained a recording career while also acting on stage and in feature films. She is married to the American writer and director David Mamet.-Early life:...
played the female lead, Carol, described by one critic as, "Mamet's most fully realized female character, ...a mousy, confused cipher" whose failure to comprehend concepts and precepts presented in John's class motivated her appeal for personal instruction. The part of Carol is said to have been written for Pidgeon.
In October, a year after the Anita Hill
Anita Hill
Anita Faye Hill is an American attorney and academic—presently a professor of social policy, law and women's studies at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She became a national figure in 1991 when she alleged that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had...
- Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court....
hearings which "crystallized and concretized" Mamet's dramatization, it appeared off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
at New York City's Orpheum Theatre
Orpheum Theatre (Manhattan)
The Orpheum Theatre, located on Second Avenue near the corner of St. Marks Place in the East Village neighborhood of lower Manhattan, New York City, is a 299-seat Off-Broadway theatre...
, with Macy and Pidgeon reprising their roles. The production included a rewritten third scene. Critic Frank Rich
Frank Rich
Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...
provides a summary of the play in his review of the off-Broadway production:
- Oleanna ... is an impassioned response to the Thomas hearings. As if ripped right from the typewriter, it could not be more direct in its technique or more incendiary in its ambitions. In Act I, Mr. Mamet locks one man and one woman in an office where, depending on one's point of view, an act of sexual harassment does or does not occur. In Act II, the antagonists, a middle-aged university professor and an undergraduate student, return to the scene of the alleged crime to try to settle their case without benefit of counsel, surrogates or, at times, common sense.
- The result? During the pause for breath that separates the two scenes of Mr. Mamet's no-holds-barred second act, the audience seemed to be squirming and hyperventilatingHyperventilationHyperventilation or overbreathing is the state of breathing faster or deeper than normal, causing excessive expulsion of circulating carbon dioxide. It can result from a psychological state such as a panic attack, from a physiological condition such as metabolic acidosis, can be brought about by...
en masse, so nervous was the laughter and the low rumble of chatter that wafted through the house. The ensuing denouement, which raised the drama's stakes still higher, does nothing to alter the impression that "Oleanna" is likely to provoke more arguments than any play this year.
It had its London premiere at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
in 1993, directed by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
played John (in a Variety Club Award-winning performance), and Lia Williams
Lia Williams
Lia Williams is an English actress and film director, notable for many stage, film, and television appearances. She is possibly best known for her role in the motion picture, Dirty Weekend...
played Carol, in a version that used Mamet's original ending from the Cambridge production. As Pinter notes in personal correspondence to Mamet that Pinter also published on his website:
- There can be no tougher or more unflinching play than Oleanna. The original ending is, brilliantly, "the last twist of the knife." She gets up from the floor ("Don't worry about me. I'm alright") and goes straight for the throat. The last line seems to me the perfect summation of the play. It's dramatic ice.
Michael Billington
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...
, in a review published in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, endorsed Pinter's choice of ending, saying "by restoring Mamet's original ending, in which the professor is forced to confess his failings, Pinter also brings out the pain and tragedy of the situation."
Film Adaptation
Oleanna was turned into a movieFilm adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
directed by Mamet, starring Macy and Debra Eisenstadt
Debra Eisenstadt
Debra Eisenstadt is an American director, writer, producer and actress. As a writer and director, she is the recipient of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival and the Someone to Watch Award at the 2002 Independent Spirit Awards, both for her film Daydream Believer. She also...
. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, whose review of the film is primarily about the off-Broadway production he saw over a year earlier, was "astonished" to report that Oleanna was not a very good film, characterizing it as awkward and lacking in "fire and passion"; this is in contrast to what Ebert wrote about the performance of the play he saw at the Orpheum:
- Experiencing David Mamet's play "Oleanna" on the stage was one of the most stimulating experiences I've had in a theater. In two acts, he succeeded in enraging all of the audience - the women with the first act, the men with the second. I recall loud arguments breaking out during the intermission and after the play, as the audience spilled out of an off-Broadway theater all worked up over its portrait of . . . sexual harassmentSexual harassmentSexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
? Or was it self-righteous Political CorrectnessPolitical correctnessPolitical correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
?
More recently, a 2004 production at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
in London, featured Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Edward Eckhart is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year...
and Julia Stiles
Julia Stiles
Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet...
and was directed by Lindsay Posner
Lindsay Posner
Lindsay Posner is an award-winning British theatre director, known for his work in London's West End and at the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, particularly plays by David Mamet.-Career:...
. Julia Stiles
Julia Stiles
Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet...
reprised the role of Carol in a 2009 production, directed by Doug Hughes
Doug Hughes
Douglas Hughes is an American theatre and film director. He is the son of acting couple Barnard Hughes and Helen Stenborg.-References:-External links:...
and co-starring Bill Pullman
Bill Pullman
William James "Bill" Pullman is an American film, television, and stage actor. Pullman made his film debut in the supporting role of Earl Mott in the 1986 film Ruthless People. He has since gone on to star in other films, including Spaceballs, Independence Day, Lost Highway, Casper and Scary Movie 4...
at the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
. On June 30, 2009, it was announced that this production would be transferring to Broadway's John Golden Theatre
John Golden Theatre
The John Golden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 252 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan. Designed in a Moorish style along with the adjacent Royale Theatre by architect Herbert J. Krapp for Irwin Chanin, it opened as the Theatre Masque on February 24 1927 with the play Puppets of Passion...
, with previews beginning Sept. 29 before an Oct. 11 opening night. The show was originally supposed to close on January 3, 2010, but due to poor ticket sales the closing date was moved up to December 6, 2009. The show played 65 performances and 12 previews.